The Five Tenets of Good Copywriting
Breaking news: copywriters are the new sales representatives!
As more and more brands take their businesses online, the responsibility of selling a company’s products by engaging and educating companies’ target markets falls to copywriters. Consequently, the strategies digital marketing agencies put in place for their clients rely largely on their copywriters’ ability to create clear, original concepts that result in effective and compelling communication to fulfil their clients’ objectives.
Copywriting is a lot more than using fancy words to hype something up, or cramming as many SEO keywords as possible into an article. Good copywriting has to reflect a business’s values and identity and have a memorable effect on viewers. However, most of all, whether the goal is to inform, educate, engage, or generate leads, great copywriting should drive viewers to help businesses achieve their objectives.
In addition to demonstrating linguistic and grammatical perfection, here are five qualities that good copywriting should possess.
Knowledgeable
In order for a message to be believable, the audience has to be convinced that they’re getting their information from experts. In order to achieve this, copywriters have to know the product they’re writing about like the back of their hand. This involves both carefully studying any briefs or brand guidelines provided by the company, as well as doing their own research and getting clarification from clients when needed.
Once the copywriter has a solid grasp of the realistic, tangible aspects and benefits of what they’re writing about, they can then identify the intangible elements and utilise them to set the tone for their writing. For example, when writing about a jacket, a tangible benefit is that the product keeps you warm, and an intangible benefit is that the wearer will look cool. The result? ‘Staying warm never looked this cool.’
Creating knowledgeable copy also involves being in the loop about the brand in the context of its industry. This involves researching the brand’s competitors or other products in similar spheres to produce copy that highlights the products’ unique selling points.
Tailored
In addition to conveying expertise regarding the brand and its product, great copy should always provide a sense of relatability to its audience. Copywriters have to put themselves in the audience’s shoes and understand their problems and pain in order to create copy that presents appealing solutions.
To do this, copywriters should gather insight into the demographics of their target audience, such as age, gender, and economic bracket, as well as more subjective qualities such as potential cultural sensitivities and surrounding interests, and adjust their content, language, and tone accordingly.
When a message is tailored correctly, the chances that the reader will be receptive to it are much higher because they can identify with what’s being said.
Structured
Most people read by skimming through passages, particularly when faced with a bulk of information. In a world where consumers are bombarded with masses of sales-related content every day, it’s no easy feat to create copy that stands out. In order to capture and hold the audience’s attention, copywriters have to organise their writing in a way that flows easily and coherently, with an attention-grabbing hook, and actionable conclusion.
Formats like AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) or the 4 P’s (Problem, Promise, Proof, and Proposal) are often helpful, but longer copy may require other arrangements, such as lists or step-by-step instructions. In these forms, each point or step should be linked by a common theme or even an analogy.
Finally, copywriters should take care not to use the same words within the vicinity of each other, or within the copy as a whole if possible. This prevents it from sounding robotic or repetitive.
Concise
When it comes to copywriting, less is almost always more. Nowadays, consumers have increasingly short attention spans, so copywriters who fall into the trap of creating copy bloated with unnecessary details, jargon, and flamboyant words tend to get lost in the noise.
On the other hand, great copywriting has a knack for accomplishing a lot with as few words as possible. Keeping copy short and sweet gives the reader a sense of ease, allowing them to focus on what they want to do about the information they’ve been given, which brings us to our final point- impact.
Effective
The most important role of copywriting is to inspire action. Once a piece of writing has caught a reader’s attention and provided them with the relevant information, they need to be given an avenue to act upon it.
Truly incredible copywriters have the ability to convert their audience without coming across as cliche or overkill. They tap into their readers subconscious throughout the introduction and body of their content, then trigger them at the very end with powerful calls to action. Essentially, the hallmark of good copywriting is if you want to do something about it once you get to the end.
Final thoughts
The presence of brilliant, impactful copywriting can make or break your digital marketing strategy, and it’s certainly not as easy to pull off as one might imagine. As one of the top digital marketing agencies in Malaysia, we at Social Grooves pride ourselves on producing content that sparks conversations. If you’re interested in finding out more, drop us a line today at ask@socialgrooves.com.